7 Secrets for an Abundant Life I Found at an Arts Festival

The unexpected place.

All I ever needed to know I learned from 7 artists I just met yesterday.

 

Ok, so maybe not everything I ever needed to know, but I learned a lot of really great ideas to live life more abundantly. I can’t wait to share them with you.

 

We were visiting Palm Springs, California, with my husband who was there for a work convention. My three young adult children and I tagged along for a family adventure in the desert. 

 

It just so happened the very weekend we were there coincided with the La Quinta Arts Festival. I’d never heard of it before, but apparently it’s one of the biggest and best fine arts festivals in the country. Lucky me! We spent a few hours there on Saturday.

 

My kids thought I took much too long to look through the exhibits and took off on their own, leaving me to take my own sweet time to gulp in the deliciousness of the art. 

 

The art! To see the color and feel the energy of creativity. It was heaven.

 

There were over 200 booths full of every kind of fine art imaginable: jewelry, sculpture, painting, fabric works, photography. 

 

At several of the booths I could hardly contain my joy over the artist’s work. I was struck by the color and the way the brush strokes moved on the canvas or the way the artist used the medium to convey their message. I was inspired and thrilled.

 

Since my budget wouldn’t allow me to properly appreciate their work by forking over the money to take all my favorites home, I appreciated with words. I asked them about their craft, what their process was, why they made specific artistic decisions, and what their work meant to them. 

 

As we talked. I could feel their passion, heart, and dedication. 

 

 

Seven secrets for living life abundantly I learned there.

The following are bits of our conversations and some amazing lessons on living abundantly that I learned from them in this most unlikely place.  

Be intentional with the memories you make because they shape who you are and what you become.

Marjolyn Vanderhart’s booth was the first I came to at the festival and I was mesmerized. Her collages made you want to step inside them and stay awhile. I loved the layered details and lingered to understand the story.

 

When I asked her about her work, she talked about the importance of our memories and how they shape who we are and what we become. She uses vintage images to evoke memories that anchor our identities from where we’ve come from.

You can follow Marjolyn Vanderhart’s art here.

Embrace challenge as an opportunity for growth and always take the chance to try something new.

Cindy Olmes told me about her creative process using decorative paper and acrylic paint to create portraits, figures, and still lifes. 

 

“Art has a life of its own and you need to let it live it,” she said. “When done painting it, that painting doesn’t matter anymore. I learned what I needed from it. The challenge is what is important.”

 

It was the learning and discovering process that mattered to this artist. The growth she gained through each piece was where she found value.

“When you paint yourself into a corner that’s where the challenge and growth begins,” she continued, “…where breakthroughs happen.” 

 

She learned from her mentor to always take the chance on trying something new and then watch as the breakthroughs happen. 

 

You can connect with Cindy Olmes here.

A change in perspective helps you see things in new and interesting ways and gives you pause to reconsider and come to deeper understanding.

I couldn’t resist Jennifer Cavan’s booth. The color and movement bursting from her canvases stopped me in my tracks. The happy buildings in her paintings slant sideways in whimsical ways.  

 

“I know perspective but I like to play with it,” she said. “When you change perspective it stops the viewer and makes things more interesting. Makes you pause and reconsider.”

 

She got me there for sure. I was captivated. And it made me think about how that applies to life.

 

Of course, she was talking about the law of perspective used as a technique in drawing to create the illusion of depth. But there are lots of ways we can change our perspective in life to gain deeper understanding. 

 

We can literally change our point of view – the place we’re seeing the world from – by getting out and seeing new places and experiencing new things. We can also change our perspective by connecting with others and hearing their ideas. When we read and learn new things we gain a new perspective. By being creative we consider other options and possibilities and often come up with out-of-the-box solutions. 

 

Gaining a new perspective helps us see things differently. It makes us pause and reconsider.

 

You can follow Jennifer Cavan’s work here.

Don’t fear failure. Nothing is so bad you can’t just wipe it away and start over.

“What’s so great about oil painting,” said artist Douglas Wodark as we talked inside his exhibit, “is that when you muck up the colors, you just wipe it away and start over.”

 

 

This cowboy painter preached an abundance sermon in that one sentence. 

 

Fear is what often holds us back from trying. But when you know you can start over and try again, then fear doesn’t have power over you.  The truth is that in order to be successful we need to often try, fail, try again, sometimes fail again, and keep trying a few more times until we get it right. Failure is not final. It’s a stop on the journey.

 

If we think that we have one shot and only one shot to get it right, we’d never try. And then by default never be successful.

 

We can feel free from fear to just get the color down on the canvas when we know we can wipe it away if it doesn’t work. We can try another color if the first wasn’t right. We can blend, add, and subtract until we get the effect we want. This is in oil painting and in life.  Taking action – starting with that first brush stroke – starts the success cycle. 

 

His comment reminded me of a profound truth. The Atonement of Jesus Christ is a powerful tool for wiping away mistakes and starting over.

 

You can see more Douglas Wodark’s art here.

Act on your ideas without fear, relying on your inner compass. Trust your intuition.

Ruben Fasani’s sculptures are life-sized and monumental with stainless steel and glass. It was so different and the materials so beautiful I fell in love with it. 

 

When I asked him how he came up the idea for the piece he’s standing by in the picture, he said, “I just got to thinking that draping the glass over the hanger would be a good idea.”

 

It was a great idea! It’s beautiful. I’d love to hang that in my house someday because of the shine of the metal and the color of the glass in the light. I love the organic form of the glass against the industrial hanger. 

 

I’m so glad he thought of it. And that he didn’t dismiss it as silly. 

 

How often do we fear the judgements of others, question ourselves, and too-quickly dismiss our inspired ideas instead of pursuing them? This limits our influence, joy, creativity, and faith. It limits our abundance.

See more of Ruben Fasani’s work here.

Everything has meaning, a beautiful purpose, and a story worth preserving and telling.

Rey Alfonso’s art is rich with symbols in everyday objects. He layers pure pigment hardened with  fire, historic hardware collected from salvaged buildings and relics, and words from poetry and songs carved into the surfaces as a medium to preserve and tell the stories so they are not forgotten.

 

His art tells his story of escaping cuba in a rustic boat he built himself. But it is the story of all us of seeking freedom and building a meaningful life. His art celebrates the hope of a promising future and commemorates the past. His art tells stories of entire cultures and the individual.

 

As we talked about his work, he told me the history of specific pieces of hardware, locks, and metal numbers in the bold pieces hanging in his booth. He pointed out the words carved into the surface.

 

“Everything has meaning,” he said. 

 

His work touched a deep chord within me and felt similar to my practice of collecting treasures. Each rock, shell, or stick I collect on an adventure holds a story, and symbolizes meaning for me, and commemorates moments in my life.

When we recognize that everything has meaning and purpose, and intentionally preserve that meaning in symbolic ways, we stop time and pay tribute to the stories in our lives. It gives our lives meaning and a reverence and value for other’s stories too.

Learn more about Rey Alfonso’s art here.

There is magic and value in the everyday moments of our lives. Live them to the fullest.

Elaine Hughes paints everyday moments: a walk on the beach, a child holding her parent’s hand, families, pets, using a pallet knife instead of brushes. Scenes that you want to get closer to see how the  layers of abstract color come together in such realistic ways. And when you do get closer you see the brilliant way she used millions of strokes of paint to built a welcoming world you’d like to step into. 

 

I spent a lot of time at this booth. These paintings stirred me. I could see myself, my family, and our lives in them. And I loved what I saw. It’s these shining moments of everyday living and rejoicing with our loved ones that have the biggest place in my heart. 

 

Although our conversation was full as I asked her all kinds of questions, I never got a specific quote written down from her that day. I was pretty into the art itself and carrying on our enlightening conversation. But on her website she says, “I hope that someone looking at my paintings will stop, be still, and realize the beauty in the simple moments of their lives.”

 

Yeah, that was pretty much me.

 

Her paintings reminded me how I want to live my life to the fullest, creating beautiful memories of connection and joy. Savoring the deliciousness of the sun on my skin, the warmth of holding my Sweetheart’s hand, and the joy of being in God’s beautiful world with the people I love. Her work helped me feel awe in the ordinary moments of my life. 

 

And one of those paintings came home with me. See the one of the girl and boy sitting on the rocks looking out at the ocean? Yep, that’s mine now. And it brings me great joy. 

 

You can follow Elaine Hughes here.

Do you want to live life more abundantly?

 

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